Citizens Bank, which operates several branch offices in Michigan, today announced that Citizens Commercial Banking is partnering with Opportunity Network, a business matchmaking platform, to offer Citizens’ clients access to a business-to-business networking platform of 13,500 CEOs and $35 billion in deal flow.
“It made a lot of sense for us to partner with Citizens Bank because the Citizens team is committed to leveraging innovative digital technologies — both organically and through partnerships such as ours — to create better experiences for their clients and to provide smart solutions in the areas that matter most to them,” says Garrett Smith, Opportunity Network founding partner and president, North America.
Citizens is the first U.S. bank to offer its clients access to the Opportunity Network platform, where users can seek trustworthy partners to help them expand into new markets, sell privately held enterprises, execute cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and maximize global asset utilization. Opportunity Network uses a proprietary algorithm designed to create efficiencies in global deal making by matching users’ strategic preferences with current deals on the platform.
“Opportunity Network has an attractive value proposition for midsize businesses, and this collaboration gives us yet another way to help meet the needs of our customers at every stage of their life cycle,” says Steve Woods, head of corporate banking for Citizens Bank. “Partnering with Opportunity Network helps us address an important issue: the fact that many midsize businesses and private investors could benefit from expanded tools and networks of contacts to grow.”
Headquartered in Providence, R.I., Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $149.5 billion in assets as of December 31, 2016. Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations, and institutions.
